


A Handful of Dust

by anticyclone



Category: Tinker Bell (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 08:08:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2805569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anticyclone/pseuds/anticyclone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tinker Bell does leave Pixie Hollow... but someone convinces her to go back for something. And she picks a friend up along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Handful of Dust

**Author's Note:**

  * For [magnetgirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnetgirl/gifts).



> An AU where Tinker Bell leaves Pixie Hollow in the first movie. For the prompt of Tinker Bell being Hook's fairy.

When Tinker Bell said she was leaving Pixie Hollow for good, she'd meant it.

There hadn't been any time to really think it through, though. It wasn't until her wings started to ache as she sped above the sea that she realized how cold it was out on the water. How cold she was. And how little she'd brought with her. Just her dress and one bag of pixie dust.

She gulped and wiped at her eyes with the back of one hand. "Just get to a shore," she said to herself.

Now that she was starting to think again it was harder to ignore just how empty the world was. Only sky above and sea below.

She wasn't a fast-flyer but she was going quick enough not to have to see her reflection in the water.

Which was a good thing. She didn't really want to look at her face or see what a mess her hair had gotten to be.

So it really startled her to suddenly see huge eyes staring up at her.

She shrieked and her wings froze up. She tumbled head over feet downward - only managing to yank herself up when her feet skimmed the water.

"Wet shoes wet shoes wet shoes!" she cried, grabbing her poofs to shake them dry.

Soft laughter from beneath her turned her face red.

She spun around and plunked her poofs back on her shoes. "And what are you laughing at?"

The woman in the water pressed her hands over her mouth, but kept laughing. "You're so tiny!"

Tinker Bell's ears heated. "I am a perfectly normal size for a fairy," she said. She looked the stranger up and down. Or mostly up and down, since only her head was above the water. "Maybe you're the giant. The - the tiny one. Ooh!" Now her face was red and she wished there was something, anything she could fly behind to hide.

The woman laughed again and leaned backward in the water. A second later she splashed, and Tink gasped, her wings suddenly soaked and ten times too heavy for her to lift.

"Oh dear, you poor thing."

"This is not-" Gasp! "-funny! I can't-" Water closed over her head and for a moment all was quiet.

The mermaid cupped Tinker Bell in the palm of her hand, raising her just above the water. "If you can't swim, what are you doing in the ocean?"

"I was flying! Fairies fly, we don't swim!"

Grinning, the mermaid shook her head. "It doesn't look like you're very good at flying either."

Tinker Bell started to speak but found her voice wouldn't start. She squeaked instead and pounded her fists against her legs.

The mermaid giggled. "Very tiny and very angry."

Her palm was big enough for Tink to roll onto her stomach and hide her face in her hands, though her cheeks burned against her fingers. "I'm not very good at _anything."_

"I guess you can't grant me a wish then."

She snorted. "I can't even make it to land."

Wet, she'd never be able to make it ... anywhere. Not new land. Not even back to Pixie Hollow - not that she'd ever go back to Pixie Hollow, but still, if it was that or drown...

The mermaid splashed her tail again. Tink spluttered and felt herself droop. "I can't take you all the way to land," the mermaid said. "I might know the next best thing."

Faltering, Tinker Bell got to her feet and slowly turned to face the mermaid. She took a deep breath and forced it out in a rush. "Will you take me there?"

Big, dark eyes slid to the tiny bag of pixie dust on Tinker Bell's hip.

"If you give me a wish..."

***

James had been staring at the ocean for hours. "I think I'm starting to go blind."

There hadn't been much to do in weeks. It was hard to scheme or plot when the ship hadn't had a wind since before the last new moon. Intellectually, James knew they'd been through worse, but the grumbling about ships stranded at sea for months - all said when the others thought he was out of earshot - was beginning to grate on his nerves.

It's not as if they weren't moving at all. The tides were dragging them, albeit slowly, towards a speck of shore on the horizon. From his studies James knew the sea could easily have turned them out further into nowhere and that they were lucky to have the current working with them.

Even if they didn't get a wind anytime soon they would reach land before their food and water ran out.

Soon, though, he would need to find a way to stop the grumbling anyway.

If only looking out at the ocean provided some inspiration...

"Is that a..." He stood up straight and rubbed at his eyes with both fists to clear them. It didn't work. "Is that a... _a flying mermaid?"_

"There's no such things as mermaids, cap'n!"

James didn't bother turning around to reprimand Port. He dashed down the deck instead, swiping

Starboard's telescope along the way.

The pirates, who had been as half-asleep as he just a moment ago, stirred when he began climbing up to the crow's nest.

"Captain?" Oppenheimer called. "What are you doing? What did you see?"

"He said something about a flying mermaid."

"Are your ears clogged? There ain't no such thing!"

"Yeah! Everybody knows mermaids can't fly!"

James laughed and clambered up the last of the ladder. He swung into the crow's nest and drew the telescope up to his eye.

What had just been an outline of a mermaid a moment ago was now crisp and clear. She could have been within arm's reach. James felt himself laughing harder as he watched the dark-haired mermaid swim through the air. It was easy to see she was laughing too.

"Captain? Are you okay up there?"

"Okay? Okay? Why I'm - I'm positively giddy! It's a _flying mermaid!"_

She tossed her hand upward and dove down, spinning in wild circles as she went. When she neared the water James held his breath, releasing it only when she seemed to catch something in her palm and wind back up into the air.

He was reminded of an air spirit in a play commanded to look like a nymph of the sea. "What am I seeing, truly?"

The others could see her now. Their shouts of alarm and then wonderment rang up from the deck. His crew was right - the mermaid was drawing closer.

James took one last look through the telescope before she drew too near for him to use it. Her hair and skin and scales all glimmered golden in the sunlight.

"There's something..." He hurried to fix the focus on the scope. "There's something in her hand..."  
Big blue eyes stared back at him.

Then the flying mermaid dove toward the ship, suddenly overwhelming the view through his telescope.

He stumbled back and fell against the wall of the crow's nest. Everyone below shouted at the sight.  
James gingerly touched his hand to the back of his head. He just managed not to gasp when the mermaid flew down to him, dripping gold dust.

She grinned and dropped something in front of him. "Take her to some land, huh?" she asked. "I have things to do before this pixie dust wears off."

"Her? Pixie dust?" James asked.

But the mermaid had darted off, looping through the air and laughing all the while.

James watched her go until he couldn't see her anymore. It didn't take long. She was flying fairly fast.

He looked down to see the blue eyes from before looking up at him, and somehow, he wasn't surprised that they belonged to someone so small.

"Hello," he said. She was so tiny. And when she stood and backed away from him, gold dust fell from wings on her back.

Well. This certainly might distract his crew until they made landfall.

***

Tinker Bell spent a lot of time hiding at first. It didn't help that she had barely any pixie dust left after helping the mermaid with her wish.

But every time she was flinching away from one of the humans - not one of whom seemed intent on crushing her or plucking off her wings - she also had to be grateful that she was dry and safe.

James let her set up on his work bench. She had a shelf to work on, out of the way, and a jewelry box to build a home in.

"It's not the same as Pixie Hollow," she said once, standing back far enough to admire her twine hammock and the fabric-scrap dresses hanging from the necklace rack.

"What are the homes in Pixie Hollow like?"

It still surprised her that James can hear her talk. Back at home - or, back in Pixie Hollow, she'd gotten the impression that humans were not only dangerous to fairies, but also couldn't communicate with them.

None of the other sailors could understand her. All they heard were bells. James said it probably had to do with magic and force of belief.

Tink didn't really care about the reason. It was enough to have someone to talk to. Especially someone who didn't know she was supposed to have a talent. That she was supposed to just support the world, not to be in it.

"They're... round," she said, thinking of her old house. "And they have lots of windows."

James looked around his study. They were surrounded by windows, the sea on every side.

"Well," he said, grinning, "it's square, but it does have windows."

Tinker Bell laughed. "It'll do."

***

James fell asleep in his chair three nights in a row before he managed to wake up before Tinker Bell.

When he did, he held his breath for a moment before slowly, slowly, and silently getting to his feet. A small noise to a human is a big noise to a fairy.

He had to use tweezers to pick up and open her bag of pixie dust.

There was barely any left. Or maybe it was half full. What would he know? The entire bag could fit on his fingertip.

He did know that Tinker Bell was very sparing with it. She said she had used too much on the mermaid and she didn't think she would be able to replenish her supply anytime soon.

The idea of flying was appealing. It was more appealing in a civilized setting, where flying could be... put to use.

He hesitated, then decided to test it on something small. A lock of hair. It was easy enough to sprinkle a few grains of dust over the end of his hair.

It floated. It was surreal to watch from the corner of his eye and his reflection in the window. He turned around, slowly, and it kept floating. The effect lasted at least a few minutes.

Then Tinker Bell rolled over in her hammock. James quickly put the bag of pixie dust back where it had been.

She didn't open her eyes.

He walked backwards out of the room, leaving the door just barely cracked so the click wouldn't wake her.

"Well?"

"Shh!" He shoved at his crew. He had been so intent he hadn't realized they'd seen him and gathered around his study. "What kind of half-wits - oh, nevermind."

They all rushed to the other end of the deck. "Can we use it?" "Did you bring it out?" "I want to see it!"

James glowered at them. "I already told you, there isn't enough!"

Oppenheimer scratched his head. "Then... What's the use of her?"

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, James took a deep breath. "She knows where the rest of it is."  
"She won't take us there," Yang snorted.

"We wouldn't even fit."

"Yeah, a pixie house must be the size of me shoe!"

"We don't need to go _inside."_ Really, when he got back to London, he needed to change out some of his people. "But we can take her back."

The others glanced at each other, briefly quiet.

James shrugged. "After all, it would be for her own good, too."

***

"I don't know if this is a good idea."

Tinker Bell was cringing. She'd been cringing since she'd left the ship. The only difference was that now no one could see her, and James wasn't there to tell her why this adventure really was a good idea.

It was true that she was nearly out of pixie dust. There had barely been enough left in her pouch to get her from the ship to the shore, and they had pulled up as close as possible.

But she wasn't dust-keeper fairy. She wasn't sure she remembered the exact layout of the depot.

James said when she came back with all the dust she could carry, she could fly again. Regularly. She wouldn't have to walk everywhere or wait to ride on his shoulder.

She wrung her hands and inched forward in the long grass around the depot. It was night and no one seemed to be around.

"If I get the dust, I can fly," she said to herself. "If I get the dust, James can fly. With me."

Talking with someone was nice. Flying, if she remembered right, would be even better.

"Okay. Okay, Tink, you can do this."

She hefted her mostly-empty pouch in one hand and tested the straps of her backpack in the other. She had spent a week sewing it and it had enough pockets for handful after handful of dust.

Taking one last deep breath, she straightened up... and took a run toward the depot.

***

Zarina hadn't slept since last night.

She'd taken home the specks of us pixie dust and experimented a little, but had been interrupted by Bobble and Clank. It had taken hours to get back from the tinkers' after testing their new dust pouches.

All day she'd wondered when they would notice she had swiped one of the pouches for herself. They were sturdier and bigger than her own, and she had a plan.

It might be a crazy plan, too, but she had no one to talk to about it. No one to talk her out of it.

Which was how she ended up running out of the depot in the middle of the night with a bag of blue dust and running smack dab into Tinker Bell.

"Oof!"

"You're not supposed to be here," Zarina said, reflexively. She kept her voice down though they were really out of earshot of the one worker minding the depot.

Tinker Bell's eyes widened. She hopped to her feet and scrambled backward. "Zarina! I - Please don't tell anyone I'm here!"

"Why would I..." She stopped and leapt to her feet, too. "You left! What are you doing here?"

Tinker Bell laughed nervously and looked around. They were surrounded only by grass. "I'm not going to the depot, if that's what you're asking."

"Well I didn't just come from the depot, if that's what you're implying." Zarina beat her wings enough to hover in place.

When she realized Tinker Bell was staring at her she dropped back to the ground.

For a long moment they just stared at each other.

Then Tinker Bell said, "I only need a little. No one will even miss it." She darted forward and grabbed Zarina's hands, startling her. "Zarina, please."

Zarina looked down at their hands and back up at Tinker Bell, momentarily speechless.

"It's just enough for me and my friend. Until we figure out how to make more," Tink explained.

"Tinker Bell..."

She let go of Zarina's hands and paced back and forth in front of her. "You don't understand how hard it's been. I barely ever fly. I have to walk everywhere and-"

"Tinker Bell!"

"What?"

Zarina shook her head. "You need blue dust to make gold dust," she said.

"Blue..." Tinker Bell groaned and flitted up in the air. For a second Zarina thought she was about to leave, but then she fell down onto a pebble. "I didn't know that."

Neither of them spoke for a few seconds. The grass was still around them. Shadows covered their heads.

"What... friend?" Zarina asked. "Did you find more fairies outside Pixie Hollow?"

"No." Tinker Bell paused. "He's human."

"Human?!"

"But he's nice. And he's smart. And he let me live on his ship and he never says I'm doing things the wrong way and-" Tink ran out of breath and forced herself to stop. "He's not going to hurt Pixie Hollow."

Zarina looked down at her satchel of blue dust and bit her lip. "And you wanted to take gold dust back to him?"

"For me. And him." Tinker Bell sighed and wrapped her arms around herself. "We just wanted to fly."

Zarina stared at the depot.

"If you take me with you, I'll help you get your gold dust."

Tinker Bell's jaw dropped. She stood up. "But you said - you need blue dust to make more gold dust."

"I have blue dust." She opened her bag just enough to give the other fairy a glimpse inside. Tink gasped and Zarina took a step back. "Are you in?"

If she wasn't... Zarina did have a plan, but being alone for it hadn't been her favorite part.

Tinker Bell opened and shut her mouth. She looked down at her own bag, which was more than overdue for a refill.

A bird flew overhead, suddenly so loud that both of them jumped behind a flower to hide.

After the bird passed, Tinker Bell whispered, "I'm in."


End file.
